New lease program charged up, ready to go

Electric car rental initiative hopes to steer drivers toward buying

Associated Press

Associated Press

Published 7:22 pm, Thursday, September 5, 2013

This Sept. 4, 2013 photo shows an electric car at a charge point in front of city hall in Orlando, Fla. On Thursday, Sept. 5, Orlando will be home to a first-of-its-kind electric rental car initiative where hotel partners will valet park the electric rental for free and charge it for you. Orlando already has more than 300 stations in the area. (AP Photo/John Raoux) ORG XMIT: FLJR107

This Sept. 4, 2013 photo shows an electric car at a charge point in...

This Sept. 4, 2013 photo shows Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer driving a new electric rental car in Orlando, Fla. On Thursday, Sept. 5, Orlando will be home to a first-of-its-kind electric rental car initiative where hotel partners will even valet park the electric rental for free and charge it for you. (AP Photo/John Raoux) ORG XMIT: FLJR102

This Sept. 4, 2013 photo shows Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer driving a...

This Sept. 4, 2013 photo shows the screen of a charge point for a new electric rental car in Orlando, Fla. On Thursday, Sept. 5, Orlando will be home to a first-of-its-kind electric rental car initiative where hotel partners will valet park the electric rental for free and charge it for you. Orlando already has more than 300 stations in the area. (AP Photo/John Raoux) ORG XMIT: FLJR106

This Sept. 4, 2013 photo shows the screen of a charge point for a...

This Sept. 4, 2013 photo shows Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer driving a new electric rental car in Orlando, Fla. On Thursday, Sept. 5, Orlando will be home to a first-of-its-kind electric rental car initiative where hotel partners will even valet park the electric rental for free and charge it for you. (AP Photo/John Raoux) ORG XMIT: FLJR101

This Sept. 4, 2013 photo shows Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer driving a...

This Sept. 4, 2013 photo shows Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer connecting a charging cable to a new electric rental car in Orlando, Fla. On Thursday, Sept. 5, Orlando will be home to a first-of-its-kind electric rental car initiative where hotel partners will valet park the electric rental for free and charge it for you. (AP Photo/John Raoux) ORG XMIT: FLJR104

Visitors to Orlando often try new things while on vacation: thrilling roller coasters, luxury hotels, different cuisines.

Now they can try out a fully electric car — and not have to pay for gas during their vacation.

Under a new program announced Thursday called Drive Electric Orlando, anyone who leases one of 15 Nissan Leaf cars from Enterprise Rent-A-Car will be able to charge the car for free. There are about 300 charging stations in the greater Orlando area, with many located at hotels, near theme parks and even downtown outside of City Hall.

"This is a first of its kind. This is groundbreaking," said Robbie Diamond, the president and CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based Electrification Coalition, a group that worked with Enterprise, several hotels, corporations and local officials to organize the program.

The group, whose aim is to get more people behind the wheel of electric cars, is made up of business executives, including some from Nissan, which means they have an interest in marketing the rental cars in hopes of courting future buyers.

"Our hope is that it's a revolutionary project — once we get people in the car, we're confident that the technology will sell itself," Diamond said.

Here's how it works: Once a driver rents the Leaf (at a cost of about $30 a day or less) at the Enterprise counter at the Orlando International Airport, they can stop at any of the kiosks in the area when the car has a low charge.

More than 25 hotels, including The Peabody Orlando and Renaissance Orlando, have charging stations, and valets will charge the cars overnight. Other large public places, such as the Orlando Convention Center, have charging stations in the parking lot.

There are no charging stations inside the area's theme parks, but there are many nearby — and organizers say more charging stations are in the works. Renters are more likely to charge their vehicles at hotels overnight, they said.

If the car runs low on power while on the road, its dashboard screen displays the nearest charging stations. If the vehicle's battery dies entirely, then AAA will come to charge the car for free, said Lisa Martini, a spokeswoman for Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

The cars have a range of about 80 to 100 miles on a full charge. All of the details, including how to plug the car into a charging station, are fully explained to the renter at the Enterprise counter, Martini said.

"We want people to be comfortable with the technology," she added.

Diamond, along with other officials, say that many people like the idea of fully electric vehicles like the Leaf or the Chevy Volt, but are worried about how far the car's battery will go.

Electric car sales are only a tiny fraction of overall U.S. auto sales. Automakers sold just over 12,000 pure-electric vehicles in the U.S. through April, according to WardsAuto InfoBank, an industry database, and Tesla Motors, which designs electric vehicles. That's less than 1 percent of the 4.97 million cars and trucks sold during the same period.